STUNNING Tiffany Wells has a big reason to celebrate the New Year... she’s lost an ­amazing 15 stone in just 12 months.

On January 1, 2011, Tiffany made a New Year’s resolution to do something about her weight after doctors told her she was eating herself towards an early grave.

And today she’s celebrating reaching her target weight of eight stone seven pounds after slimming down from 23st 7lbs.

“I know people go back on New Year’s resolutions, but I knew I had to keep mine,” says Tiffany, 23, who was once a Size 30 but is now a Size 8. “My goal was to be slim and healthy for 2012... and I’ve done it.”

Problems started for 5ft 1in Tiffany when she fell into a loveless relationship with a man she met online. And when she struggled to find work she started to ­­comfort- eat to make herself feel ­better.

Soon she was starting to pile on the pounds. “I had no friends, no job, no one to talk to and no reason to leave the house,” she says. “I needed comfort. I found it in chocolate and crisps.

“It was a vicious circle. The more I ate, the less I wanted to leave the house. The less I left the house, the more I wanted to eat.

“I knew my clothes were getting tighter and kept having to buy the next size up. But I didn’t realise how bad the problem was until I registered at a new doctor’s surgery.”

It was then that she was told she had to lose weight or risk long-term health problems.

Yet she decided her diet could wait until one final blow-out. On ­Christmas Day 2010 she tucked into platefuls of turkey with all the ­trimmings, Christmas ­pudding, mince pies and chocolate washed down with litres of wine as she gorged on 10,000 calories.

“I ate everything I could get my hands on, nothing was off limits,” she says. “Looking back, I’m disgusted by how much I got through. My Christmas Day roast towered on the plate. But I polished it off without a problem.

“I spent the evening tucking into boxes of chocolate and helping myself to leftovers. But it was the last time I ever ate like that.”

She celebrated New Year’s Eve 2010 at a friend’s party, but refused to wear a dress because of her size. “I just wore jeans and a T-shirt,” she says. “All my friends had their best frocks on, but there was no way I would have worn anything that revealing.

“But it made me even more ­determined to make a fresh start and get a grip with my weight.”

Tiffany started cooking healthy meals from scratch, replacing pizza and burgers with healthy salads, stir-fries and soups. And she joined a gym.

Incredibly, she lost 14lbs in the first week and the weight continued to drop off. She even met a new man, Stuart Beagley 26, and got a new job in a residential retirement home.

“I went from barely managing to walk on the treadmill at the gym to doing weights, rowing and running for miles,” she says.

“I started seeing old friends again and fell in love with a new man. I didn’t need chocolate to cheer me up ­any more. I felt amazing.”

And this year Tiffany says she doesn’t feel the need to make any more resolutions.

“I’ve got the body I always wanted and aim to stay that way,” says Tiffany, of Biggleswade, Beds. “I’m really proud of myself – 2012 couldn’t have got off to a better start.”